October 12th, 2016

“Some may say you can’t, yet the Can-Do is always up to you!” ~Dennis G. Shaver

To stay on the path of my dreams, goals and desires in life, I use mantras often. For me, these are quick, empowering phrases that immediately pull me up from the mire and place me in a focused frame of mind where I am once again primed for success and forward movement. A few of my favorites are:

Onward and upward! – which reminds me of the direction I’m headed in, my potential beyond what is in the now;

If it’s to be in this lifetime, it’s really up to me! – which strengthens my commitment to take personal responsibility for my thoughts, feelings and actions, keeping me on the path toward my success; and,

Become a conduit to your can-do-it! – which reminds me that I am the channel conveying the unlimited and innate potential I have within me all the time (and each of us has!) to choose to focus on what matters most and evolve forward through life, with confidence, faith and self assurance.

Becoming a conduit to your can-do-it is a phrase I touch on often in my book The Entrepreneurial Incubator ; however it is a powerful phrase for each of us whether or not we think of ourselves as entrepreneurs as it can be applied to any part of our personal life or career. Translation: you too, each of you, can be a conduit channeling success in any part of your life.

I lived in the Denver area for many years, and that city (with a population of nearly 3 million people) has a beautiful example of a physical conduit. Confluence Park is an urban park in Denver’s LoDo neighborhood, a bustling district of 19th century brick warehouses redeveloped into restaurants, shops and quirky microbreweries. It’s not uncommon on a sunny Sunday to see families, weekenders, and hand-holding young people congregating and enjoying the rapids, eddies and shallow pools created by a channel moving straight through downtown. I’ve even seen kayaks on the channel.

More than an urban nature playground though, Confluence Park is an essential part of what makes Denver an enjoyable place to live. Without it, and without the conduit it creates, the Cherry Creek and the South Platte River would spill into each other and, as was the case in the late 1800s and early 1900s, create a water-filled, sloshy, muddy mess for Denverites. Flooding and spring run-off from the mountain snow west of Denver presented a constant threat to the sustainability of downtown Denver’s citizens and businesses.

But that was then, and this is now.

Today, the creation of this stunning urban conduit is the answer to routing water to where it should be, and is what makes downtown Denver a thriving, urban community. The original essence of this park all started with a thought, an idea and a whole lotta conduit to can-do-it!
Like the city of Denver’s water flow problem, the challenges and burdens we face in our life can be a real PITB (“Pain In The Bottom”), but only when we’re looking at them as such. When we shift our perspective ever so slightly to channeling our PITB issues into opportunities to grow and evolve forward, we create our own powerful conduit.

Become a conduit to your can-do-it is a reminder of the choice we each are called to make in every moment. When we are in the midst of that challenge, burden, fear, anxiety, or roadblock, we can choose – or not! – to take that first step to evolve and grow.

If we decide not to take action, a result will still occur; yet it may not be the result you’re looking for. You are still responsible for the decision of not making a decision.

If we decide to take that first step with a good plan of action, then we have to choose to take a second one, and then a third, and so on, until eventually we walk through our challenge and make it to the other side.

What’s on the other side, you ask? I could leave you hanging and challenge you to discover the answer for yourself, but I’ll tell you (SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER AHEAD!).

On the other side is…

…a stronger, more resilient YOU; a YOU who can look back and say, “Whew! That was quite a challenge, but I made it through!”

Then, the next time we face a challenge, we have already paved the path towards “I can do it!” because we’ve already done it before. This is how we learn, grow and evolve.

We become stronger, less fearful, and evolve from can’t to can-do!

Are you ready to become your own conduit, putting the can-do-it back into play and moving your entrepreneurial idea forward? You’ve got the idea, now it’s time to open the conduit towards your path to success. The Entrepreneurial Incubator is your guidebook, and is available here www.theentrepreneurialincubator.com.

*The information collected by www.dennisgshaver.com is strictly used for the purposes related to your www.dennisgshaver.com inquires, and will not be disclosed, solicited or advertised to third parties.